Carson City, a refresher

I talked about Carson City, Nevada at length on my other travel blog, "In My Travels," but since I have not talked about it since June, I will start with a refresher.
In September, 2008, I visited Nevada's capital city for the first time. I spent two nights there and fell in love with the city! It is one of the oldest cities in Nevada. In fact, all of Nevada's oldest settlements are in this western part of the state near Lake Tahoe and the California border. Until the early 1900s, this area contained over 95% of Nevada's population. Las Vegas didn't exist until 1905!
Carson City is located in the beautiful Eagle Valley, in the eastern foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains.
Ranchers began moving into the Eagle Valley in 1849, the year of the famous California gold rush. Many of them spent the winter here instead of trying to cross the formidable mountain range in the coldest part of the year. Alot of them stayed. However, no town was established at first. Instead, the lush, grassy valley was occupied by widely scattered farms and ranches. In the spring of 1851, the Eagle Station Trading Post opened for business. It served as a local grocery store and also as a stage station. This was the nebulous beginning of Carson City, which later grew on the same spot. For seven years, this trading post served as the focal point of life in the valley, serving farmers and ranchers as well as the occasional traveler that ventured through this area, usually on their way to the California gold fields.
The Eagle Valley was, and still is, a lush grassy area that is well-watered by the Sierra Nevadas. This mountain range lies mostly in California and is home to some of the coldest and snowiest winters in the United States. It is an area that was ripe for settlement and is the primary reason that was the first part of Nevada to be settled. Today, this area is still home to about 30% of Nevada's population, with roughly 65% living in the Las Vegas area at the south end of the state. That leaves only 5% of the population scattered over the rest of the state!
The trading post served as the focal point of the immediate area of what is now Carson City, but there were two towns in the vicinity that got the start even before the trading post opened. I have already talked about one of them on "In My Travels," but I will talk about it again, plus the place at the south end of the Eagle Valley, later in this blog because there is a dispute as to which town is the oldest town in Nevada. One town has the "official" title, but I think it should be bestowed on the other town based on research I have done.